Our opinion: Status of art school facilities a concern for all students

It’s easy to look around our campus and imagine it as a paradise of higher education. Between the wildlife and the vegetation, it sometimes more closely resembles a country club than a university. But there is a significant blight on the Coral Gables campus, and while it doesn’t directly impact each student, it is something we should all be aware of.

As reported in our cover story, our university’s art school is housed in buildings that can only be described as sub-standard. Constructed by the Army in the times of our grandparents, the wooden shacks have long outserved their usefulness to our university. History is something to be preserved and cherished by our university, but this is taking it a little bit too far.

And the greatest indignity is the fact that there is no quick-action plan to rectify the situation. A building that was supposed to be knocked over in 1992 still stands to this day, and is expected to stand until at least 2015, if not longer. We get that the economy isn’t exactly flying right now, but at some point it’s unfair to expect students who bear the same tuition burden as every other Cane to try to learn in these kind of conditions.

And therein lies the point. We’re all students at the University of Miami. From engineering to English, from calculus to communication and clay works, we all pay the same tuition and inhabit the same campus. How can we look at our art school friends and say to them just grin and bear it while we enjoy our renovated Memorial classrooms and brand new buildings in Communications and Nursing? We all want the best possible education for ourselves for our investment. But when some students are dealing with such insufficient facilities, all students should be their advocates.